Mr. Speaker, the new Conservative leader will put people first: their paycheques, their homes, their retirements and their country. It is time for action and it is time to return a sense of self-sufficiency to a people who have had it stripped away by the paternalistic, archaic and broken Indian Act.
Canada's Conservatives, under our new leader, would restore to indigenous people more control of their land, money and decision-making. We would remove the bureaucratic gatekeepers and barriers in legislation and have a robust dialogue with indigenous communities who want to develop their resources and invite commerce to fight poverty.
The time has come to have a national dialogue with indigenous and non-indigenous people of Canada on autonomy, taxation, capacity, transparency, accountability and property rights. We would repeal the current government's anti-energy laws and replace them with a new law that would protect our environment, consult indigenous people and get things built. Indigenous people would find, under a Conservative government led by our new leader, that they have an ally rather than an obstacle to reconciliation.